Standard Chartered attracting more takeover interest - report

In an ‘uncooked alert’, markets blog Betaville said people following the situation have heard rumours that StanChart has attracted more takeover interest.

Some people following the situation have heard speculation the interest has come from the Gulf region in the Middle East, possibly Abu Dhabi or Saudi Arabia, it said.

In January last year, Bloomberg reported that First Abu Dhabi Bank had hired advisors to work on a takeover of Standard Chartered but then walked away from the deal after the news agency unveiled its plans to buy the emerging markets bank.

Last week, British fund managers also suggested that Standard Chartered could be a 'takeover target'.

Betaville said readers should be aware that some of the takeover speculation surrounding Standard Chartered has been priced into the stock as the company's shares have risen 15% over the last month.

At 1615 GMT, the shares were up 1.9% at 695.20p.

The markets blog defines an ‘uncooked’ story as "market gossip as Betaville receives it".

"This scuttlebutt has just come in and hasn't been checked with all of Betaville's well-informed RARE sources let alone formal journalistic channels (public relations executives, bankers etc)," it explained.

"The rumour might be total codswallop but then again there may be something in it, so it's worth airing on Betaville."